lived in a fairy tale where everything was perfect. jayne rager valseca: first day of school. fernando valseca: then, all of a sudden, there's that demon, that black spirit, that darkness. jayne rager valseca: he just points the gun at my forehead. the first thing i started thinking of was my children.

at first, i was like what does kidnapped mean? my dad was stolen by bad guys. emiliano valseca: i lost everything that i knew just like that, gone. fernando valseca: it was such a mystery, who was behind this. it was just tearing me apart. i was suffering so much. jayne rager valseca: i just said i will do everything humanly possible to get your father back, if it takes everything we have, everything i can humanly do. i saw things that no 12-year-old should see. keith morrison: i mean, just the cruelty and incredible fear and agony. like, when is this going to end? emiliano valseca: all the hell that we went through together and all the pain, it has made us unbreakable. keith morrison (voiceover): the green and white taxi barreled down the highway. something was wrong. why had that man paid 10 times the fare for a simple package

delivery? the cabbie pried open the envelope. was that someone's finger? and why was that man now tailing him? cold fear rising, he pulled into a gas station. he begged the police come quick, but the cabbie had no idea, any more than this family did, that their terrifying story more than a decade in the making was about to come to an astonishing climax. fernando valseca: i was 12 years old-- 12 years old when it happened. and then, all of a sudden, you meet the dark in life in a really ugly way. female: [non-english speech] emiliano valseca: it's hard to imagine how we would be like if none of that happened. female: are they delicious, nayah. yeah. nayah valseca: i never go into detail. it's always like well, something happened, now i'm here. keith morrison (voiceover): and here is where it happened, to the valseca children, san miguel

de allende in mexico, a little slice of, well, paradise is what it seemed like to them. like, my mom used to call it our little bubble. jayne rager valseca: honestly, i was living my dreams and then some. keith morrison (voiceover): this is their mother, jayne-- j-a-y-n-e, by the way, a detail that will matter later. jayne rager valseca: my whole life, i had worked as an actress, and did a lot of television commercials, bit roles in movies and soap operas. keith morrison (voiceover): and then 1992, it happened, pure chance. jayne rager valseca: well, it's kind of like one of these fairy tale stories. keith morrison (voiceover): she was 25. she was at a payphone near washington dc when she just happened to lock eyes with an art dealer named eduardo valseca who, she would find out, was a divorced dad of two and the offspring himself of a famous mexican newspaper baron. jayne rager valseca: colonel josé garcia valseca who founded over 40 newspapers in mexico.

he was one of the biggest newspaper people, publishers in the country. would be an equivalent in the united states of whom? william randolph hearst probably, yeah. keith morrison (voiceover): that's when garcia valseca ran his newspaper empire from a luxury pullman train car, the one which, decades later, eduardo owned. though, when he invited this beautiful woman he just met to mexico for a train ride, she had no idea that the train was his. jayne rager valseca: and we're walking toward it, and then this man comes out with a white jacket, white gloves, black bow tie with a silver tray. i mean, i was just completely speechless. keith morrison (voiceover): she soon discovered the train car was about all eduardo had, a family fortune. the rest, along with the newspaper empire, had long since withered away, but jayne fell for a man, not money. and what eduardo lacked in fortune,

he replaced with laughter and passion and a huge enveloping personality. jayne was in love, and soon married, and swept off to mexico. one thing eduardo's heritage did afford them was the chance to live anywhere they wanted in mexico, and this is where they chose, san miguel de allende, a colonial town. a place so lovely, it's attracted people from all over the world to come here and live. keith morrison (voiceover): jayne and eduardo loved fixing up and selling old houses, so they made that their business. and they made children. jayne rager valseca: it had been a big dream of mine to live in the country and have a big, organic garden and fruit trees and horses and lots of animals for the kids to play with. keith morrison (voiceover): it was luck when this place came up, a rundown ranch in foreclosure, perfect. jayne rager valseca: it was a great deal, but at the time, it was a pile of rocks, literally. there was no road going out here.

it was a dirt road that was almost impassable, unless you had a jeep. and we started building little by. every little bit of money that we made, everything that we could manage to save, we started putting into the ranch. keith morrison (voiceover): they built a real ranch house among the mesquite trees, and surrounded it with fine, big gates and outbuildings, a garden for her, a riding ring and fine spanish horses for him. and no surprise, part of their building plan involved that stately old railroad car. jayne rager valseca: one of the marvelous parts about ending up with this piece of property was it just happened that the railroad track went right through it. keith morrison (voiceover): jayne was behind their home movie camera as the car was towed to its new home on the ranch. [inaudible] the train, [inaudible].. jayne rager valseca: are you happy? keith morrison (voiceover): and for three growing children, a magic place, happy and secure. oh fernando, emiliano, and baby nayah. 100%, yeah.

it was paradise. keith morrison (voiceover): that baby was 18 when we sat down with her. i remember we used to have a cage full of rabbits, like tons of bunny rabbits, and that was my favorite thing. keith morrison (voiceover): emiliano remembers a life lived outdoors. emiliano valseca: i didn't really have an xbox or a playstation or electronics. i had dogs. - who needs it? i had a donkey that would take me to school every morning. keith morrison (voiceover): how was that possible? jayne wanted the children to get an education beyond what public schools here offered, so she and eduardo founded a waldorf school, built it right on the ranch, recruited other families to join them. jayne's eldest fernando loved that school. fernando valseca: it was my mother's pride and joy. we knew every single student that went to that school. fernando valseca: everybody on the faculty. it was a big family. keith morrison (voiceover): every morning, the 1/2 commute down their own quiet country lane to school had become a family ritual. and the morning routine was singing all the way to school, which was really the only routine that we had.

[non-english singing] keith morrison (voiceover): so now, it was that perfect morning, june 2007, and they bumped and sang noisy and happy down the dusty road. and of course, they did not understand, how could they, this was the last moment of pure innocence any of them would ever know. coming up, a violent awakening. jayne rager valseca: immediately, we're hit from behind. he just points the gun at my forehead. the first thing i said to him was please don't kill me. i have three children. keith morrison (voiceover): a terrifying road was ahead, and a journey that would test them all. i lost everything that i knew about life just like that, gone. you have to know that i will do everything humanly possible, if it takes everything we have, everything i can humanly do. keith morrison (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. have you always had trouble with your weight? [music playing] same. discover the power of wegovy®.

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jayne rager valseca: life was so good for so long for us that it was almost like living in a fantasy. it was almost like on a daily basis, pinch me, is this real? keith morrison (voiceover): it was june 2007, two weeks before summer vacation. [non-english singing] eduardo and jayne valseca and their three children arrived at the country school not far from their ranch house outside san miguel de allende in mexico. jayne rager valseca: as we pulled into the parking lot, i noticed that there was a small compact car in the far corner of the parking lot, and there was a man at the wheel who had a fisherman's cap, khaki color on and glasses. keith morrison (voiceover): a prospective parent, perhaps, for next year's class? jayne walked the children to their classrooms. she stopped at the school office. jayne rager valseca: and asked the administrator if she knew who the gentleman was or if he needed help. and she looked over and looked across the parking lot and said, i don't know who. he is he must be waiting for someone. keith morrison (voiceover): eduardo was behind the wheel of the jeep listening to the radio. the stranger's car was beyond it at the back of the lot.

jayne rager valseca: as i walked to the jeep, i looked across and made eye contact with him, and i actually smiled, and he smiled back. keith morrison (voiceover): eduardo put the jeep in gear, pulled away, the strange car fell in behind them. jayne rager valseca: a pickup truck comes out of nowhere. it catches up to us, and the man driving turns and looks at us, and the look was really scary. you saw it. we both got just, a really creepy feeling, just the way the man looked at us. keith morrison (voiceover): now that stranger's car in the pickup raced to positions beside and in front of the jeep. eduardo said something is definitely not right. what is this guy doing? keith morrison (voiceover): and then at moments, it was obvious. jayne and eduardo were being chased, herded like cattle into a shoot with no escape. jayne rager valseca: in the distance, we see the compact car that has raced up our interior road, cut in front. keith morrison (voiceover): here, she relived it, the horrified moment as the car in front of them suddenly stopped, and eduardo slammed on his brakes.

i mean, immediately we're hit from behind. and at that point, it was a split of a second, and there was a man coming out of the passenger side of the car coming at eduardo, and he's got a hammer in one hand and a handgun in the next. keith morrison (voiceover): the masked man shattered the window-- [glass breaking] --landed a hard blow to eduardo's head that sent blood gushing down his face. the first thing i started thinking of was my children. are my children going to lose their parents right now? keith morrison (voiceover): a second attacker ran at jayne, yanked open her door, pulled her from the jeep. she screamed, kicked at him, grabbed the fence beside her. the barbed wire sliced through her finger. her attacker forced her down. jayne rager valseca: while i'm laying on the ground, he just points the gun at my forehead, and tells me in spanish to get up. the first thing i said to him was please don't kill me. i have three children. keith morrison (voiceover): then, they hustled jayne and eduardo into a waiting suv. unseen accomplices snapped pillowcases over their heads and tightly bound their hands and feet. eduardo was hysterical. i don't think he was completely hearing me. he probably had a concussion. keith morrison (voiceover): the suv sped away.

jayne tried to comfort eduardo. one of the abductors threatened more pain. he kept yelling at him, shut up, you [bleep],, or i'll give you another one. keith morrison (voiceover): at that moment, the eldest son fernando was with classmates on a bus right behind the suvs. i saw the two cars fly down the straight road and take a left toward san miguel, and it was weird to me to see two huge suvs going that fast. you saw them being taken? no. i didn't see them being taken, but they were in-- keith morrison: they were there. --the two cars right in front of me, and i didn't know. i had no idea. keith morrison (voiceover): in the suv under that gagging pillowcase, jayne struggled to breathe. she reached out for eduardo. i felt blood all down his arm. keith morrison (voiceover): then, she felt the blood pouring from her own slashed finger. she tried to memorize each bump and turn as the suv veered onto the highway towards san miguel. then minutes later, pulled over, stopped, someone yanked eduardo from the suv, he screamed. i hear the doors of that vehicle open, and after i hear them shut, i can no longer hear

my husband's muffled screams. keith morrison (voiceover): jayne managed to lift the pillowcase hood just in time to see eduardo vanish, and realize she was alone. they'd all left. i was bound, so i threw myself over the seat, ended up in the floor, pulled myself up, opened the door, and literally hopped as if i was in a sack race to the highway in flip-flops. keith morrison (voiceover): an elderly man stopped to help. he had a machete, but no cell phone to call police. frantically, jayne tried to flag down passing cars. all hit the accelerator, not the brake. jayne rager valseca: i imagine it looked pretty scary to see a woman bleeding, desperate, bound in duct tape, next to a guy with a machete. keith morrison (voiceover): then, in sheer desperation, jayne stepped in front of an oncoming bus. i jumped in front, and i just put my hands up like this, and i hoped he'd stop. keith morrison (voiceover): but no cell phone on the bus, either. now, the bus driver flagged down a taxi, and the taxi driver called the police. so i thought for sure that they would just--

the police would run off in every direction, seal off san miguel, and we'd have him, end of story, but it didn't go that way. keith morrison (voiceover): no, it didn't. eduardo had been kidnapped. and then, as if more terror was possible, police took jayne back to the place where she was abandoned, and there on the ground was a letter. it was addressed to her. jayne rager valseca: well, i realized that they'd spelled my name correctly. my name is jayne, spelled with a y. so it was really scary to see on the envelope that they'd actually spelled my name right. nobody spells your name right. no, no. keith morrison (voiceover): and inside the envelope? jayne rager valseca: the ransom note that says, señora, go home, open this email with this password, and we have eduardo, eduardo is with us, wait for our message to arrive. keith morrison (voiceover): it was then she understood. the kidnappers had been watching them. stalking them, researching every small detail. jayne rager valseca: it immediately made me realize i needed to be very careful and very smart

about the choices i was about to make. my husband's life was on the line. keith morrison (voiceover): coming up, reality sets in. what would she tell the children? i was confused. i was very confused. i didn't know how to take it, whether to cry, whether to be mad. keith morrison (voiceover): and who would she turn to for help? jayne rager valseca: and i thought, this is what you're sending me to deal with this? keith morrison (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. the beard that doesn't itch. and you're using king c. gillette on that thing? king c. gillette? look! this beard trimmer pro's got 40 length settings and this beard oil's one of gq's best beard conditioner for soft, no-itch facial hair. the best a man can get... is king c. gillette. type 2 diabetes? the best a man can get... discover the ozempic® tri-zone. i got the power of 3. i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. i'm under 7.

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jayne valseca sat in the dirt by the highway on the outskirts of san miguel de allende. a cop helped her strip away the duct tape around her hands and feet. she tried to staunch the blood from her injured finger gashed on that barbed wire fence. she tried to tamp down the terror that grabbed at her throat. jayne had read about brutal kidnappings in mexico city where victim's fingers

were cut off and delivered with ransom demands-- [non-english singing] --but this was safe little san miguel, where eduardo had always said-- jayne rager valseca: do you think anybody's going to come out here in the country? that's not going to happen. keith morrison (voiceover): but it had happened, and all she could think of was finding help fast. jayne rager valseca: i'm sitting there in the dirt in need of stitches, and at that point, i have two cell phones going. keith morrison (voiceover): but why? wouldn't the police just take over? well, no. jayne herself, in this supremely vulnerable moment, would have to decide which police, if any, she could trust to get her husband back. jayne rager valseca: you can allow the local or state police to handle the situation. you can go to the mexican equivalent of the fbi, which is the afi, or afi, or you can go to a private consultant that you have to pay out of your own pocket, and they will negotiate it privately.

keith morrison (voiceover): so as cars whizzed by and the dirt-caked blood dried on her skin, jayne placed calls all around the world to private companies that specialize in kidnap negotiation. they knew all the questions to ask. they said, how many vehicles were involved? what did the note say? can you describe the people? what did their guns look like? keith morrison (voiceover): it must be a sophisticated operation, they told jayne. negotiating would be difficult and expensive, at least $2,500 us a day plus expenses, far more than she could afford. so jayne decided to enlist the mexican version of the fbi, the afi, the elite unit of the mexican police. she made the call, went back to the ranch, cleaned up her wounds, and told six-year-old nayah and 7-year-old emiliano that their father was on a business trip. i was confused. i was very confused. i tried to ask questions about the whole situation, but the best that i could get was a pg version-- yeah.

--of what was really going on. keith morrison (voiceover): but fernando was 12, he had to be told, and anyway, she needed him now. fernando valseca: she told me this morning, we were, both your dad and i, on the way back from dropping you guys off at school, we were kidnapped, and they took your father. i just said to him, you have to know that i will do everything humanly possible to get your father back, if it takes everything we have, everything i can humanly do. keith morrison (voiceover): suddenly, fernando understood the speeding suvs he'd seen that morning. i didn't know how to take it. i didn't know whether to cry, whether to be mad, whether to-- just shock. keith morrison (voiceover): fernando fled then, went to a secret private place, a rise from which you could see the rest of the ranch. fernando valseca: i grabbed the keys and threw on the helmet and went for a ride,

and started crying and bawling my eyes out. keith morrison (voiceover): jayne meanwhile had one more crucial call to make, to her mother, also named jane. she lived in her own house on the ranch most of the year, but that day, she was home in virginia. jane rager: jayne called, and she says mom, sit down, i have something to tell you. and of course, i didn't sit down, and i said, what is it? and she said, well, eduardo's been kidnapped. what's it like to hear that? well, i lost it. i grabbed a suitcase, and i threw in a toothbrush, and i couldn't remember what i needed to take. keith morrison (voiceover): now, it was evening. jayne rager valseca: i'm hoping that i'll get home like they've told me, i'll open the email, there will be a message, and whatever i have access to, they can have it all, just give him back. so i'm at that point hoping this is going to be an open and shut deal in less than 24 hours. keith morrison (voiceover): jayne got ready for the arrival of the federal afi agent.

the federal police had promised he'd move in right away, and live on the ranch until he got eduardo back. she felt like she was waiting for the cavalry to arrive. she let hope grow. i expected him to roll in in some kind of bulletproof suburban, be big and burly, and hopefully a little mature in having done this quite a while. [bells ringing] keith morrison (voiceover): and then, finally, at 3:00 am, the afi agent called. could someone come and pick him up in town, he asked. he had come from mexico city by bus. jayne rager valseca: he looked like a high school or maybe freshman in college student with a backpack, a baseball cap, glasses, tiny. and i thought, what is going on? you mean, this is what you're sending me to deal with this? so the first thing that i asked him after shaking his hand was, are you armed? and he said, no. and i said, why not, for gods sake?

keith morrison (voiceover): seasoned criminals had engineered a seamless plan to steal her husband, and all she had on her side was a short, skinny kid with no apparent backup, no car, and no gun. coming up-- she felt like her whole world collapsed, and i could see that through her eyes, and i couldn't really communicate and try to help her because i didn't know how. keith morrison (voiceover): --kidnappers send a message from the shadows, a demand impossible to keep. now, i'm thinking they're just going to kill him. keith morrison (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. the freestyle libre 3 plus sensor tracks your glucose in real time,

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hi, i'm francis rivera with the hour's top stories. 2025 begins once the clock struck midnight eastern times, fireworks and renditions of old

lang syne rang out as folks gathered for the famous ball drop. preparations were underway to secure the ball. it is adorned with waterford crystal triangles. we are wishing you all a happy new year at msnbc. now i'll send it back to dateline. dateline. only be described as dismay. her husband eduardo had been kidnapped, she was frantic, and now the federal police had sent her an unarmed boy. the young man took one lookt jae, saw her disappointment, and then spoke. he had a very confident smile on his face, takes off his glasses and hat, and says, look, would you really want me arriving in a bulletproof suburban and coming out with a machine gun? how would that look if you're being watched? we could be putting your husband at risk. keith morrison (voiceover): the agent, jayne learned, was older than he looked, was an experienced hostage

negotiator. he brought his weapon into jayne's house. it was a laptop computer. he actually selected a place here in the dining room where he would be the only one to see his computer screen. he was in a spot where he could see all the goings on in the house. keith morrison (voiceover): his name is a federal secret, his face a blank. our interview request went to the highest level, we were denied. we do know he was constantly online with a team of agents in mexico city analyzing what clues they had, advising jayne's agent on strategy, not just jayne's agent, of course. [non-english speech] we interpreter: have as many as 25 kidnappings at a time. keith morrison (voiceover): and here in a giant room that looks like nasa, more agents track hundreds of surveillance sites around the country. but on day one, all that expertise coughed up only this one piece of very bad news. the people who grabbed eduardo? they were almost certainly, said the police, part of a fringe marxist political group called the epr.

jayne's agent considered the evidence, and offered a dismal prediction. this is not going to be over in 24 hours like you'd like. as a matter of fact, this is not a matter of days or weeks. based on previous experience with this particular group, this is going to be months, if you're lucky. what was it like to hear that? i thought i was going to go crazy. i thought for sure, i'd have a nervous breakdown right then and there. keith morrison (voiceover): jayne's seven-year-old emiliano looked on helpless. emiliano valseca: i remember the whole thing very, very clearly like it was yesterday. i remember opening the door, and seeing that look in her eyes. what look? she looked-- she looked like she was heartbroken. she looked like she failed. she felt like her whole world collapsed, and i could see that through her eyes. and i couldn't really communicate and try to help her because i didn't know how. and i expected her to be strong and fine, which, of course, no one is strong and fine when

something like that happens. so i gave her her space. [music playing] keith morrison (voiceover): in historic san miguel, though eduardo was a prominent local citizen, life went on as if nothing had happened, even though he had been a known anti-poverty activist, a panelist on a local tv show. in fact, this is a recording of the very broadcast aired the night before he was taken. this is the host of the show lucy nuñez, co-owner of the tv station, but what was she able to do to free her friend eduardo or find his kidnappers? not a thing. how often was it reported on the television or radio? no, we never said anything. keith morrison (voiceover): a request, she said, from the federal police. lucy nunez: they said no comments in the radio station, no comments in the channel because we don't want these people to be afraid or whatever, and they could do something to eduardo.

so it was like shh, mouth closed. everybody was acting as if nothing was happening. keith morrison (voiceover): everybody perhaps, but jayne. remember, the kidnapper said go home, you'll get an email with our demands, but on day one, there was no email, nor on day two, nor three, nor day four. and then after five full days and nights of sleepless torture, jayne turned on her computer, and read the news. for the liberation of eduardo, we are demanding the amount of $8 million us. keith morrison (voiceover): $8 million. send the money, said the email, in us currency, $100 bills. now, i'm thinking they're just going to kill him because i didn't have that kind of cash. keith morrison (voiceover): anybody familiar with the idyllic ranch here outside san miguel, anybody who'd heard of eduardo, scion of a famous publishing empire, might

quite reasonably have assumed he was among mexico's super rich. the kidnappers made a mistake, though. because the wealth the valseca's had was all in the property. and besides, whatever signing authority existed was with eduardo, not jayne. they took the wrong valseca. i didn't have access to anything really, beyond what was in our checking account. keith morrison (voiceover): the fact of the matter was, the valseca's were house poor. they'd put everything they had into the ranch, and at recession prices, even if she could sell it, she'd get a small fraction of $8 million. there in the dining room, jayne showed the email to her afi agent, and realized he was not surprised. jayne, you have to realize that this is the way this works. you're going to be learning the ropes here. they hope to get that amount, but this is where we start negotiating. keith morrison (voiceover): the kidnappers set the rules. rule one, jayne must communicate

with them only through want ads in a specific newspaper. her first ad, they demanded, would go in the animals and pets section. she wrote, looking to buy a chow chow dog, vaccinated with complete pedigree. they started out at $8 million, what did you respond? we're very concerned for the puppy's well-being, and your request is beyond our economic possibilities. just that. mm-hmm. and then, waited. and then, waited. keith morrison (voiceover): coming up-- i snapped that day. i couldn't cry. i didn't react. keith morrison (voiceover): --at last, word from eduardo, heartbreaking letters, harrowing photos-- i had this urge to know and-- so what did you do? i opened up pictures that i wish i hadn't seen. oh, my god. there was blood everywhere. keith morrison (voiceover): --and one agonizing phone call.

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nayah valseca: i ate all my sandwich. keith morrison (voiceover): jayne decided she had to tell the two young ones the truth. there was no business trip. i still didn't understand. like, at first, i was like, what does kidnapped mean? she said, look, your father has been taken from us by bad guys, and we need to keep this a secret. you may not tell anyone in school. did you keep it a secret? i kept it a secret, 100%. keith morrison (voiceover): why a secret? the federal agent knew the family was being watched, spied on days and nights. if the kids talked, maybe the kidnappers would hear. we had a bonfire out on the cobblestones, and we were saying prayers for eduardo. and suddenly, jayne says get in the house, get in the house. and the afi agent had signaled her, and he knew that there was somebody watching us nearby in the grass,

which was really close by. keith morrison (voiceover): jayne and her federal police advisor dutifully placed those bizarre want ads saying, they didn't have the $8 million us ransom. and the response? a few weeks into the ordeal, eduardo's kidnappers turned up the pressure. they began including in their untraceable emails, letters from eduardo himself. "i'm suffering more than i can manage. they beat me. they tie me up. i'm naked. i haven't eaten. i'm going crazy. i can't handle this torture anymore." it was horrible. it destroyed me. keith morrison (voiceover): so she began selling things. first to go, the spanish horses eduardo loved so much sold for a fraction of their value. jayne rager valseca: i sold sheep. i sold machinery. everything i could sell, i sold. all at fire sale prices. mm-hmm. i remember taking up all my money from my piggy bank and just giving it to my mom, and saying here, please just use this-- yeah --to get dad back. i just want him back.

keith morrison (voiceover): all of it made hardly a dent. they wanted $8 million. she raised $20,000. they had started saying in their emails to me that if i didn't come up with the money on a certain date that they were going to start cutting off his fingers. keith morrison (voiceover): and when jayne didn't, couldn't pay? the answer was swift. it said that-- that i'd been fooling around enough, and that eduardo had sent me a package, and that i needed to go immediately to a certain place on a highway to a specific mile marker. and that a certain number of meters off from the highway in a specific direction, there would be an open area with a patch of dirt that was darker than the surrounding dirt, and that i needed to unearth the package. keith morrison (voiceover): she was horrified. was it his fingers? the federal agent, afraid for jayne's safety, sent someone else to follow the kidnapper's

directions to the buried package wrapped in plastic. and it was not severed fingers. it was a sheet of iou's signed by eduardo. with these, wrote the kidnappers, jayne could get a loan for the ransom. i was supposed to now, hopefully be more successful in raising funds that way. keith morrison (voiceover): oh, she tried, but local businessmen dismissed the ious as likely forgeries. summer passed. and then, october, four months into his captivity-- [inaudible chatter] --the children pulled out home videos, and huddled in their mother's bed. [inaudible]. [giggling] jayne rager valseca: for a long time, the kids watched it every single day after school, and sometimes when they weren't around, i'd go in and just watch the part where he blew me the kiss, and said, i love you, again and again. [kiss] jayne rager valseca (on recording): i love you. keith morrison (voiceover): day of the dead revelers

paraded san miguel streets in november as the kidnapper showed jayne how near death they were willing to take eduardo. the email, eduardo is going to receive his first gunshot in his left leg, unless there is a change in the total amount offered to seven figures. it wasn't a bluff. a photo followed with the bloody proof. i snapped that day. i couldn't cry. i didn't react. did you see these photographs of eduardo? i told my agent that he needed to start being my filter, that i would not be reading any more letters, and i would not look at any photographs if he wanted me to get through this and get through this sane. keith morrison (voiceover): nor did jayne share the photos or letters with the children, or so she thought. i completely understand where my mom was coming from, not telling me exactly what was going on, but i had this urge to know, and-- so what do you do? fernando valseca: i went on to her email, and opened up pictures that i wish i hadn't seen.

it was a picture of my father with no clothes on in a box with duct tape over his eyes, around his head. oh, my god. there was blood everywhere. what'd you do with that information, that picture, that image? kept it inside, and just kept it inside. keith morrison (voiceover): two weeks later, they shot eduardo again, this time in an arm. [phone ringing] then, the phone calls began. jayne rager valseca: i thought it would be someone disguising their voice, and that's what i'd been trained for. keith morrison (voiceover): the agent had warned her it might happen, had even prepared dialogue for her to memorize, and kept this erase board handy so he could prompt her. but it wasn't the kidnappers who got on the phone. i was shaking. i didn't know what to do. keith morrison (voiceover): it was eduardo, but the things he said, this could not be the man she loved, but it was. and then, he started calling me names. you're such a bitch. how could you do this? it's my money.

then, it was more of the same that i'd been getting in the letters that they had forced him to write. keith morrison (voiceover): she turned to the young federal agent. jayne rager valseca: and he told me, jayne, you've been preparing for this. you can do this, just relax. keith morrison (voiceover): they knew, both of them, he'd been given a script to read. we were both playing a role. after i answered the immediate questions and got the information that i wanted to make sure that they heard, which was very important to save his life, then i said, i changed my tone, and in came me. [sniffling] and i told him how much i loved him. and how much his kids missed him. and that i would do anything to get him back, and that the money didn't matter. i give them everything i could.

and i could hear his tone changed completely, and it was the real him. he told me, he loved me too, then they hung up on him. keith morrison (voiceover): a joyless christmas arrived and then new year's. how long before they killed him? coming up-- the little kids would go up to my children and say things like, oh, i heard your daddy's dead, that they found him in a plastic bag in the park at juarez. i kind of knew in my heart that i would never see my father, again. keith morrison (voiceover): --despair sets in. she threw the telephone across the room and hit the wall, she was so angry with them. keith morrison (voiceover): then, from the shadows, a light. was there hope? when "dateline" continues. type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone. [music playing]

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gossip, as everyone knows, has a way of sneaking past even the most determined efforts of official secret keepers. and soon, san miguel de allende chewed warily on a story that made the rounds, eduardo valseca kidnapped. he must have made enemies, went the story, and this was payback. he was probably already dead. jayne rager valseca: friends would say things to me like, oh, jayne, i'm so sorry about eduardo, we liked him so much, and speak about him in the past tense as if he were dead. keith morrison (voiceover): even on the playground, classmates told jayne's children to give up hope. the little kids would go up to my children and say things like, oh, i heard your daddy's dead, that they found him in a plastic bag in the park at juarez. i'd say that was around the sixth month that i kind of knew in my heart that i would never see my father, again. keith morrison (voiceover): and even if they did-- fernando valseca: if he's going to come back

sane, if he's going to come back crazy, if he's going to come back having to be in a mental institution. keith morrison (voiceover): and jayne, well? this is her mother who heard jayne talking to the kidnappers. jane rager: she would cry and yell at them on the telephone. and once, when they hung up on her, she threw the telephone across the room and hit the wall and broke the phone, she was so angry with them. you can either collapse or challenge them. get sad or get mad. and as the time went on, she got angrier and angrier. keith morrison (voiceover): and then, jayne would turn on her computer to find messages from a man barely hanging on. "i need you like never before. help me. be compassionate toward me. i can't take it anymore." she had troubles of her own, by the way, breast cancer, but she kept that to herself. and as the ordeal continued, she occasionally slipped off to america for tests. jayne rager valseca: i just got there,

i would have mris, and blood tests, and visits with the oncologist, and whatever was necessary, and i'd get back on the plane and come back. keith morrison (voiceover): she got an idea. the kidnappers were obviously watching her, so jayne very publicly pulled up a moving truck, got out some bubble wrap as if she was giving up, leaving. she was packing up that furniture, and she didn't even tell me. i had to ask her. i said, are you moving? are you going back to the states? keith morrison (voiceover): of course, not, but that bit of theater seemed to work. jane rager: after that, moving the furniture around, the tone of the emails changed. to what? they begin to drop the amount of money that they were asking. keith morrison (voiceover): now, instead of millions, the kidnappers demanded hundreds of thousands. that was money she might be able to borrow from some well-heeled friend. jayne rager valseca: so i started asking people, and some people would tell me yeah,

sure, call me on such and such a date, but then i wouldn't get a-- they wouldn't answer my calls or return my messages. keith morrison: why? jayne rager valseca: well, that they somehow, by helping me, they would expose themselves to this sort of a thing somehow. keith morrison (voiceover): eduardo's grown children from his earlier marriage did everything they could to help, but they didn't have that kind of money. so they all felt very alone as they tried to keep hope going at the ranch. jayne rager valseca (on recording): i want you to look at the camera and give a message to your daddy because he's going to see this when he gets back. that i love him so much, and he's the best dad in the whole wide world, and i know he's coming back soon. keith morrison (voiceover): then, quite literally, in the depths of their despair, something completely unexpected. one person whom jayne had not approached for loans wrote a big check, demanded no repayment or collateral. there was one single condition, the benefactor's

identity be kept secret. and jayne finally received the email she'd worked so hard to get. we have a deal, it read. be ready to deliver the money. the final amount of the request of the family and police was withheld, a fraction of the original demand, but it had to be in us $100 bills, and it had to be done in secret. jayne rager valseca (on recording): i had to go in and count it in a back room, make sure that everything was all in order. keith morrison (voiceover): then, she called on her acting skills, stuffed down her anxiety, and walked out of the bank. jayne rager valseca (on recording): a couple of people recognized me. this was a small town. everyone knows you. so i stopped and talked to people, and even put the bag down on the floor between my feet as if it was a yoga bag. i felt like i was stuck in a movie that i couldn't get out of. keith morrison (voiceover): the afi agent refused the kidnapper's demand that a family member deliver the ransom. instead, two ranch employees, brothers, volunteered to deliver the money.

but was eduardo even alive? she demanded proof, and got in return, a heart-stopping photo. it was him, all right, but the once robust, youthful eduardo was now a gaunt, emaciated stranger. would they let him go? she was at their mercy. coming up-- my stepson found our afi agent crying. keith morrison (voiceover): her worker kidnapped, too. keith morrison: now, you've got no employee. you've got no husband. you've got no money. that wasn't enough for them. keith morrison (voiceover): soon, their world would change, again. there was a stranger at the door. my mom looks out there, and she walks over to the window and looks closer. he could barely talk. he just whispered. keith morrison (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. let's monopoly go! friends are like money. keke, i won again? they make everything more fun.

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